Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Student Loans Halal or Haram, Any Alternatives

Bismillah

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim hamdulillah Salatu was Salam ala

see even more serene while early he also he he married unmarried.

I think it's very important to speak about student loans. It's a

question that I'm been receiving I'm sure many other orlimar have

been receiving this over and over again. And there's been a lot of

reaction to it. Because it's a need of the time, you know, we've

got many youngsters, many young people who want to go and study

because studying is something good. We need professionals in

this country. And we can't discount that fact. You know, I

would really encourage that those who have the ability to study they

should do because, and do it with the right intention. However, the

question is about funding, I mean, the pricing, or the fees went up

from about three or 4000 to 9000, which is exorbitant, it's it's

essentially it puts it beyond many people's means. And that's why we

definitely need to try to have that changed in some way or the

other. But while it is the way it is, the current system, which I've

actually clarified with two great scholars, one is the Mufti of

one is, one is my teacher, the Mufti in Santa Paula, I talked to

him about it. And we couldn't find any permissibility. Because at the

end of the day, you're entering into a contract which is made

between yourself, and and the funding body, whoever that is that

as soon as you start taking that as soon as you take that loan,

although you will be paid to the university, and you can't take it

and just spend it as you want. It has to go to the university, it's

still you're assuming the liability for it. So to say that

it's just going directly to somebody else, right? What are you

signing off on at the end of the day? So you have to realize that

there are there is this issue here that you're the one who is

assuming liability for it, because eventually you're the one who's

going to have to pay it so that you can't circumvent that problem.

So it's coming, it's your you're assuming it, the interest start

straightaway, although you don't have to pay it, but it starts

accruing straightaway. So one of the strategies that I have thought

about was that in the years that you need to take the loan of three

years or four years of your study, in that time, work and save up

money and everything like that. And then as soon as you finish

before the interest kicks in, you can pay it off. But then I

realized that no, the actual interest, interest starts accruing

straightaway, even though you don't have to pay it. Now they do

say that you're not going to pay it until you start making 21,000.

So I've had questions from people who say, I don't want a job

afterwards. I'm just doing this for the knowledge. So my thing is

that why are you putting yourself into this kind of a bind, because

you have to realize that there's many other diploma courses and

other other courses that are much cheaper, $1,000 5000 pounds, 1500

pounds, etc. That will teach you things. And there's other ways of

learning. In fact, there's many free ways of learning. Now

universities are going online, American, many universities Gone,

gone online, even UK recently, they've launched online and those

classes actually for free. So if it's just for education, you've

got many other places, Khan Academy, we have some level,

there's many others as well, that you can go and get free education.

There's a lot of education out there, that's for free nowadays,

right? So for you to put yourself into this kind of a bind, and

assume this liability. Firstly, I can't understand why somebody is

going to go into this and say, I'm not going to work. If you if

you're gonna go to study, I'm assuming that you want to make

more money. That's why otherwise you can get any kind of menial

job, right? So why would you go to study and then not want to work

afterwards? What what happens if you had to work? If you're forced

to work, then you'd have to, you'd be forced to pay the interest as

well. So you're still assuming that responsibility at the end of

the day, the problem here The difficulty here is the fact that

it's interest. And the two things which ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada has

not just called haram or not just called a cursed, and not just said

it's bad, but has actually said that he declares he declares war

against and one of them is interest. And the other one is to

trouble one of the worry of Allah subhanaw taala is if Allah has

gone to this level to explain this, then you can imagine how far

away we need to be from this. That's why I'm, you know, I have

to be passionate about this, because that's what it is. And I

have to just say, No, the other person I could clarify this. And

this was a this was a this was with Mufti Taqi with money when he

came two years ago. Right. And then we were sitting in Leicester,

and there were a number of other movies there. Mufti Mohammed,

Abdullah Adam was there Kofi Mufti Zubair, but was there from

Bradford. And there are a number of other alumni there, I believe

mon Abderrahim Lynparza. My my teacher was there as well. And I

asked him this question. He said, No, it's not permissible. Right.

So I'm not saying this on my own behalf. However, then we did learn

from off this way he did say and recently there has been this poll

that's going around where the there are some lobbies that are

trying to Muslims that are trying to lobby the government for a

system that will be conducive to Islamic finance, the halal Halal

way of doing things. So there is this poll on right now, right,

which we should we should definitely take part in. Now.

Having said that, right now, if somebody wants to go to university

and somebody's already done it, they need to make doba right,

those people who are considering I'm going to tell you It's haram

because

I can't, you know, I can't give you a photo of permissibility and

assume that responsibility. So what should you do? I mean, we

need to find a way out of this. So until the government hopefully

Insha Allah, may Allah subhanaw taala make them change their

model. But until that happens, what do you do? Well, essentially

you borrow from others, right? You borrow from others. Number two,

you would be liable for a cut you Sorry, you will be entitled to the

car. Because if you don't have any money, you don't have enough money

to spend. You don't have enough money to pay, right, which means

that whatever amount of money you have, it has to go towards it and

you're zero, you're in debt for the rest of the fees because you

have to give them in installments, then you are liable for zakat. So

you can accept zakat money if you are entitled to Zakat, and I think

as a community as a whole, and I've mentioned this on eBay, as

well, we're sending huge amounts of money, our zakat, Lilla, and

other funds were sending contributions to other countries.

And I think we need to start working at home, I really think we

need to start working at home. Because yes, it's good to help

people in other places as well, that maybe not as well off as us

and that new things. But at the end of the day, this is for the

survival of the Muslims and for them to increase their heritage in

this country and to have professionalism and professionals

and academics in this country is very important as well. So I think

as a Muslim community, we need to think about this, we need to have

scholarship programs, there is a lot of money in this country,

right? The government gives a good 25% Gift Aid contribution as well.

That means every 100 pound that somebody's giving, they're getting

125, the charity is going to get 125 that means if they're

receiving 1000 pounds, they're going to end up with 1250. That

means on every 4000 pounds that they're receiving, they're getting

an extra 1000 pounds for every 4000 They're receiving 5000 That's

amazing, right? In America, it's different in America, the person

who's giving, he gets that much back according to how much how

much taxes he pays. So if you pay 20% tax in America, and you give a

contribution to a charity, you get 20% back, not the charity, but in

England, the charity gets it. So the charity is laughing all the

way. So we need to really, really strategize in this regard and

really be thinking about our people at home. Right? And, yes,

we can still send, you know, help others out there. But we need to

help our people, we need to say that because we owe it to us, and

especially to our children and grandchildren, that we need to set

up this kind of thing. So we can have decent sufficient

professionals in this country who go and study. This is not just for

universities, we've got

I am adding courses, you know training

to make people Imams and Allah ma

the students in these programs, we don't have the money, they have to

literally go by contributions. So we have this issue in this country

don't think there's no poverty in this country. There is there is

just because we got a bit of disposable income where we get our

daily bread, it means we got everything we don't, we need to

really think about this. So make lots of dua to Allah subhanho wa

Taala that Allah bring about a change in the system, we need to

lobby for it because until we don't, nobody is going to speak on

our behalf number one, number two,

get loans from your family and friends, and then work and number

three zakat. That's what the card is for your poor you can accept

the card that's what it is take the money from the rich give it to

the poor, and we as a community need to be concerned about that

about trying to set up some kind of scholarship on May Allah

subhanaw taala give us a trophy Welcome to Darwin hamdulillahi

rabbil aalameen